Delhi Assembly panel serves fresh summons to Facebook India chief

new delhi: What first started with a Wall Street Journal article on the alleged bias of Facebook when it came to enforcing hate-speech rules for members of the ruling dispensation in India, has now turned into an Assembly panel's inquiry into the role of the social media giant in the north-east Delhi riots this

February.

After already having defied a summons from the Delhi Assembly's Peace and Harmony Committee, saying the Assembly panel does not have jurisdiction in the matter, Facebook India Vice-President Ajit Mohan has been summoned again by the committee on September 23, with a warning that defying it would attract breach of privilege proceedings.

Mohan had dodged the previous summons on September 15 by "overriding jurisdiction of Central Government" which the committee called a "sly" maneuver on Facebook's part.

Chairman of the Peace and Harmony Committee Raghav Chadha in a statement had said that the Delhi legislative committee was operating in its constitutionally lawful jurisdiction and does not conflict or weaken the jurisdiction of the Central government on similar issues. Chadha insisted that Facebook must honour the proceedings taking place under the Delhi's state legislature in the same manner as they did for the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

"It is imperative that those who are sent Notices/Summons by the Committee, must appear before the committee and offer responses and solutions," the summons issued to Mohan stated, a copy of which has been accessed by Millennium Post.

Any rebuttal to or disregard of this subsequent notice shall be deemed as a willful act of breach of privilege and thus shall invite a host of proceedings against Facebook India, the committee said in a statement. The committee is of the view that the disregard portrayed by Facebook is an attempt to diminish the stature of the committee by being skeptical of its power to take cognizance of the issue.

The refusal to appear gives the committee the impression that Facebook has been attempting to conceal crucial facts in relation to its role in the February riots. The failure to appear on September 23 will be admitted as an "intelligible breach of privilege" and action will be taken against Facebook.

While presenting its comments after Mohan defied the first summons, the committee and its Chairperson Chadha had minced no words to make it clear that the Assembly panel was looking into Facebook's role in the February riots that killed at least 53 and injured scores of others while Parliament was examining ways to regulate problematic content on the platform as a whole.

The State Legislative Assembly has legislative powers in the matter concerning the violence in the north-east area of the city while the state government has the executive power in respect of the same, that is, it can summon and ensure the presence of witnesses, the committee had held.

"Facebook chose to dishonour the powers and privileges of the committee in the garb of obliging with the directives of the Parliamentary Committee," the Peace and Harmony committee had said in a statement.